Chapter Text
-Neige... Forgive me.
Neige looked at him in confusion and tilted his head slightly.
-Eh? Why?
-I'm... I'm no good. -He said, lowering his head with a downcast expression, sighing, anxious, nervous about how it was all going to play out.
-Why do you say that? We're not very close, but, I know you were very kind the last time we met, Vii-kun, you offered me a drink that time. -Neige smiled tenderly, he felt happy that he could at least get along better with Vil, since, as Neige himself said: they weren't very close and Neige was excited about the idea of being so.
The sweetness with which the black-haired man looked at him, made him feel worse, when he raised his eyes and saw that look full of innocence, he simply couldn't help but start crying.
-N-no... I... I didn't do it with those intentions. I wanted to get rid of you. I-I was tired of you always beating me, ever since we were little you've always had people's sympathy over me.... I couldn't take it anymore when I saw your presentation, so.... -He paused to continue speaking, he felt how his chest hurt more when he spoke to him, he was feeling the real regret- I poisoned the juice I offered you, you should have died, if it hadn't been because Rook appeared and yelled at you to leave....
Neige looked at him in horror, unable to believe it, he felt an inexplicable pain, had life prepared him for that? No... How did one react to this? It was as if a sword pierced his heart, no, two, maybe three, or maybe many more than three.
-... W-why...? Y-you're being honest with me...? Vii-kun, d-did I do something to deserve that...? Something like that... Was the cause of this...? -Neige wanted to get up from where he was sitting but his body didn't respond, his eyes were heavy and his face felt hot, a headache was coming, he knew it, and his face was already soaked.
-No, of course not, you're n-not to blame for anything, these acts are only my fault. Don't blame yourself... -Vil felt he had hurt the one who least deserved it, and so it was, Neige just looked at him trembling.
-... A-are you sure it's just like that...? Ah... Vii-kun, is there something else... You want to tell me? -Neige meant that he suspected that Vil wasn't telling him everything, as if he certainly suspected that he was under the effects of something.
Vil thought he had heard about the Overblot, so he naturally told him about it.
-My Overblot was stopped by my friends, if it hadn't been for them, I most likely.... I would have died and they with me.
-O-overblot!? -Neige asked excitedly, it was a lot of information all at once, he felt like his head was going to explode.
Vil looked at him strangely while wiping his tears of repentance, bathing the soul, which heals and shows change.
-Yes, I hurt myself a bit.... But nothing severe, even so... I went out to give the best I had, to the stage, because we had trained so much for this, I wanted to beat you with our perfection, I forced everyone to change their diet, their schedules and their habits, the whole time they were with me, everything.... When Mira Mira told me that you were better than me.... That increased in me the pain and envy, I never talked about it with anyone, when I finally thought I had a chance you showed me that it was not so, when I did what I did, I was under the negative effects before the Overblot, I think it was almost impossible to get out of that... I'm really sorry, forgive me, please.....
Neige didn't know how to react, his heart forced him to have compassion for him, on the other hand, he was also thinking of getting away from Vil forever, because everything was a deception, everything he had thought was good.... In reality it was bad, Neige's heart broke, he was crying in pain and the crying became more strident.
The blond didn't know how to act, he would hug Neige, but he didn't feel worthy, he would comfort him, but could he do it in his position?, he would kneel down, but would that be enough to remedy his mistakes?
-V-vii-kun....
The first thing that came to his mind, was the first thing he did, he slapped him, annoyingly, and with a lot of pain.
Vil didn't get angry, on the contrary, he thought it was more than fair even if it was from Neige, from whom he didn't expect it, and on one hand he felt good that it had been so, to receive this, his cheek burned, the small and delicate hand of the one who always took his, or hugged him when he let himself, was now marked on his cheek, so well kept, Neige's pretty expression showed so much anger, still, it was cute, like a pout.
-It's okay, I deserve it.
Neige looked at him blurrily and began to cry more, he lowered his head and saw his own tears wet his pants.
-You were so long keeping it all to yourself, weren't you? You had to deal all the time with this pain? Since long before...
Vil was confused again, he thought and well justified that Neige should be hating him for the abominability of his act, but despite the crying and the slap he had given him, he was sympathetic, kind.... Sweet.
-Yes, but that doesn't matter, it doesn't justify what I wanted to do, when I had the chance to avoid it, I didn't realize it, there was a moment when it was irreversible. -Vil constantly wiped his tears- I deserve that you hate me. I understand that you don't want to see me anymore or work with me.
Neige nodded his head and looked down at his trembling hand.
-I-I don't want to see you at the moment, and I don't hate you..... I can understand why you do it, b-but I can't accept it just like that..... My chest hurts, I'm hurt.... I-I feel as if you've stabbed me. Vii-kun... You're not bad, if you were bad you wouldn't have deigned to call me to apologize to me.... J-just... Vii-kun, you're talented... Wonderfully beautiful, you surely have friends who appreciate you very much you, people who care about you.... When you feel like this... Just say so!
Vil felt another slap, but not because Neige had given it to him, it was the slap that gave him the truth of what he was telling him, even though Neige was naturally sensitive and kind and therefore on the verge of a breakdown, he cared about his well-being, even though he was seeing it all blurred and telling him things between heart-rending sobs.... Neige felt compassion, kindness? It was something that Vil didn't understand, but now he realized that he had a lot to learn from the broken person in front of him.
Vil said no more and Neige weakly stood up from his seat.
-V-vii-kun.... Inside me, I still appreciate you and know that you are able to change, even if it hurts me everything you did, I don't hate you and I won't hate you, be good and show that you are not the same as before, but.... I want that you do it for you, m-more than for me, I want that Vii-kun to feel the joy of being good and loving himself, o-okay!?
He hurried away from there, to his school, leaving Vil, changed, more changed than before.
Vil... He felt so weird. It wasn't what he expected, he got a pleasant surprise, it wasn't that he expected something bad from Neige, he just thought that he would naturally want to get away from him for precisely he didn't try to do it to him.
He stayed in his bedroom all day, he did not go out, he just stayed there thinking about what had happened, he decided to pay a visit to the garden of his soul, he had not visited it with dedication for a long time, it was dark, there was not much light, he was surrounded by dark flowers that he could hardly see anything, in one part, there was a small and half withered flower, the relationship with his father, the rest represented his vanity, his arrogance, his arrogance...
There was a part more illuminated than another, he walked towards it and there was a garden, it was not small or big, medium, it was full of colorful flowers, they were the flowers that had bloomed with the friendships he had developed, the bonds he had forged with his training group, they had made his soul more beautiful, even if he thought it was not so, he saw it, but, there was a part of the garden bigger, there were the flowers that Epel and Rook had made bloom, their bonds of friendship were bigger, it was obvious, they were his closest friends.
His lousy relationship with Epel did not exempt him from appreciating him more than others, with Rook.... Rook was the one who had made the most flowers sprout, his right hand, who cared the most about him of his friends, was him, he never seemed to get upset, everything about him was flowers, even if Vil was rude or tactless, Rook was always there for him.
The affection he felt for everyone, was joy to him in the midst of the storm, he thought he was happy with just that and Neige's forgiveness, and he was, but something soon made him happier, without looking for it and without realizing it.
He went around the garden and no longer found anything interesting like what he had just seen, until he walked to the exit, he saw, a flower he had never seen before. Oh, what surprise Vil showed, surprise.... Confusion again, doubt...
-A lily...? -Vil asked, there was no reason for there to be such a flower there, it was so different from him and the others, he felt so alien to the meaning of that flower that he really wondered from the bottom of his being, the possible cause.
His heels stomped on the grass getting closer to the flower and he saw that it was beautiful, white, immaculate, strong, self-confident... Pure.
Different from the almost depressing and dark garden where he was, this would bother him for the next few days and as time went by, this would become more intencific.
-I will visit this garden again and when I come back, you won't be here anymore, I guess. -He smiled wryly, thinking that the situation was very strange.
Vil left the garden of his soul to go study, the beauty of being the best is always the reward, to see good work done.
But the recent wound hurt him like some physical wound in his heart, as much as it was so, he wanted to forget it, for Neige had been clear, although, time was being merciful to him, he would not forget it, he would heal it, and he was already starting with that.
He wasn't sure, but before leaving the garden, he had the feeling that this flower would be more important than the pile of flowers in the medium sized garden that was so far away from him.